


Hope and Destruction

by SnowPetal



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Backstory, Basically a bunch of backstory for Asgore and his human friend, Human/Monster War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-18
Updated: 2016-08-18
Packaged: 2018-08-09 15:44:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7807729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SnowPetal/pseuds/SnowPetal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Asgore reflects on his life before, during, and after the monster/human war.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hope and Destruction

**Author's Note:**

> Just as a little note here, the human from the intro sequence will be referred to as "Reada". All credit goes to passivechara on tumblr for the name.

It’s summer, the sky bright blue and the air just breezy enough to emit a pleasant chill. Birds sing melodically amid the fluffy white clouds, and flowers are blooming all over the world in a brilliant assortment of colors.

Below the bright blue sky, and among the vivacious flowers, a young boy lays, relaxed, peacefully taking in the atmosphere. He blinks – once, twice – before opening his eyes to the sky above him, and then lets out a quiet sigh.

_It’s almost ethereal_ , he thinks, taking everything in at once. It’s ethereal how such a world as this can possibly exist, how something so simple can be so full of life. How such a complicated world can hold such simple, beautiful things once one looks past the struggles of their life.

The boy closes his eyes once more, taking in a deep breath of air and letting the feeling of freshness linger for a long moment before opening his eyes again. When he does, however, his gaze isn’t met with the same light blue sky. This time, his eyes settle on yet another set of eyes, a dark ashy brown with a glint of curiosity to them. Startled, the boy yelps and scoots backward, shaking his head before properly sitting up.

“Sorry,” the owner of the eyes speaks, their voice hushed. Now a bit less surprised, the boy takes note that this figure is just a child like him, only something about them is… different. Rather than fluffy white fur, the child is covered in pale peachy skin, and their head is covered by a mop of auburn hair. “I didn’t mean to startle you,” the child continues. “I just wanted to say hello.”

“Oh… well howdy,” the boy says in response, still a bit out of it. He doesn’t let it show though; instead, he summons a big bright smile to his mouth. “I am Asgore, what is your name?”

“Reada,” the child replies timidly, shielding their face with their bangs.

“Reada, huh? That is a nice name.” A pause, and then, “Hey, do you want to play a game?”

“Um… I don’t know. I’m supposed to be working right now.”

“Working?” Asgore cocks his head. “But you are a kid like me, right?”

Reada nods. 

“Well then why do you have to work?”

“I have to hunt. See?” They reach behind their back to reveal a small hunting weapon of some sort.

“Oh, is that a spear?” Asgore asks. “I have a spear too, do you want to see it?”

Before Reada can even so much as answer, Asgore already has his hands out in front of him, willing forth the magic from his body and soul. Suddenly, bright red magical sparkles fill the air, all clustering together to form a long, red trident. Proud of his accomplishment, Asgore grins. “See? This is my special spear. It is called a trident!”

Reada looks truly awed. “Wow,” they say, mouth agape. “How did you do that?”

“Magic,” Asgore proudly replies.

“Can you teach me how to do it?”

“Um.” Asgore blinks, his grin faltering. “I do not know. What kind of monster are you?”

“I am not a monster. I am a human,” Reada says, and suddenly it all makes sense. Asgore can feel his cheeks heating up in embarrassment already.

“Oh,” he says, and scratches his head. “In that case… I do not know. Do humans know how to use magic?”

Reada just shrugs.

“Well… we can always try, right? Here, give me your hands.”

Reada obeys, taking a seat in the grass beside Asgore and outstretching their hands. Asgore considers his options for a moment before taking them in his own.

“In order to perform magic,” he begins, “you must be attuned to your soul. That is what my mother always tells me. You have to feel the magic flowing within you, and only then can you bring it forth from your body.”

“But… I cannot feel my soul at all,” Reada informs, frowning.

“Oh, is that so?” Asgore mirrors Reada’s frown, but then suddenly, he gets an idea. “Hey, I know! I will show you your soul! Then maybe you will be able to feel it better!”

“Okay,” Reada agrees, and Asgore immediately gets to work. Carefully, he focuses in on the human sitting beside him, doing his best to feel their magical essence. Then, he blinks – once, twice – and suddenly the magical energy bursts.

When Asgore opens his eyes for the third time, there’s a little red heart floating beside Reada’s chest, and Reada looks baffled beyond words.

“Wow!” Reada exclaims, cupping their soul with their hands. “It’s so… breathtaking!”

Asgore nods in agreement. “I have never seen a human soul before, but yours is truly beautiful.”

“Oh… th-thanks.” They smile, just then, their cheeks flushing a bit as well. “So, are you still going to teach me how to use magic, or….?”

“Oh, right! Do you feel more attuned to your soul, now? Can you feel it?”

“Um, I think so.” They give their soul a curious look for a moment before closing their eyes as if in concentration. Then, suddenly, the soul begins to move – left, right, left, right, up, down, up, down. Reada opens their eyes again with a delighted giggle. “That was fun! It is almost as if I am moving a part of myself.”

“Really?” Asgore asks. “Huh.”

“Yeah. Also, everything looks black and white. It is so… strange. In a good way, I mean. Haha!”

Asgore laughs as well. “Okay, well now that you can feel your soul, can you try to release the magic from inside? I know humans are not made of magic like monsters – my mother told me so – but I think they might still be able to use magic. If they have a lot of determination, I bet they can!”

“Okay, I will try.” Reada grins, closing their eyes once more. They stay perfectly still for a minute…. Two minutes…. Five minutes? 

Asgore sighs. It’s been a while, and nothing has happened. Maybe it’s true, what his parents always say. 

_Humans are lower beings than us. Their souls may be strong, but they cannot perform magic like we do. We will always be better than them in that regard._

Asgore opens his mouth to speak, mentally preparing a speech so that he can let Reada down in the most kind manner possible, but just then, a spark flies.

Asgore stills.

Another spark flies, big and red and mystical. And then there’s another, and another, and then there’s a whole bunch of them all coming together to form some kind of object.

“Oh, Golly…!” Asgore breathes out, something between shock and happiness filling up his entire body. “Reada, look!”

When they open their eyes, Reada stills as well. All they do is stare down at the object in their hands, as if in shock themself. 

“You did it, Reada! You performed magic!”

Reada smiles. “Did I?” They lift the magical object in their hands. It’s bright red like their soul, emitting a pink aura. “What is it?”

“I… do not know. But hey, I bet my mother knows! Do you want to come to my house with me? You can stay for dinner too.”

“S-sure,” Reada says, their smile instantly brightening. “I guess I can skip my duties for one day. I’m sure no one will miss me anyway, haha!”

Asgore joins Reada in laughter as he skips back toward his house, motioning for Reada to follow him, because Wow! He just found a new friend!

“Come on, Reada!” he calls out jubilantly. “Last one there is an ugly tortoise!”

And thus, the two children run off together, through the fields of grass and flowers, with the blue sky overhead. As the birds sing, the children run, run, run faster and faster through the field, until there is nothing left but the earth and the song the birds are singing to it.

And then – Asgore blinks. Once, twice – oh. He yawns as he takes in his surroundings.

He’s sitting on his throne in the throne room of his castle, no longer a kid, but rather a king. Light filters in through the ceiling above him – not quite the same as sunlight, but the closest it can possibly be beneath the earth. Surrounding him are flowers – flowers that are vibrant and beautiful, yes, but still not quite the same as the flowers on the surface.

“Come on, Chara!” A squeaky voice pulls Asgore out of his thoughts. He looks up to see a young boss monster run into the throne room. “Last one there’s an ugly tortoise!”

Not even a second later a human enters the room as well, right on the monster’s tail. At the last moment, they manage to reach their arms out to snag the monster’s shoulder, causing the both of them to fall to the ground in laughter.

“Hey!” The monster squeals as he disentangles himself from the human. “I was winning!”

Briskly, the human gets to their feet and runs over to Asgore, and then touches a finger to his thigh. Smirking, they retract their hand and place it on their hip. “Actually, I reached Asgore’s throne first. That means that I won, and you’re the ugly tortoise.”

“Aww, no fair!” he whines again, and the human – Chara – just laughs.

Asgore sighs and smiles down at the children before him, chuckling slightly to himself. “Now now, children,” he begins, “let us not be fighting with each other. This is meant to be a peaceful place.”

“I know,” Chara mumbles, and then walks back over to the monster. “Here, Asriel,” they say, extending a hand to help him up. “Let’s play Absolute God of Hyperdeath.”  


“Oh, okay,” Asriel replies eagerly, quickly springing to his feet. “Which scene were we on again?”

As the two children continue to play in the corner of the garden, Asgore once again finds himself drifting off to the land of days past. A solemn expression works its way onto his countenance as memories flood his system.

 

~O.o.O~

 

_“It is a special kind of magic called ‘dream magic’. Very few monsters know how to use it, and a human using it is unheard of!_

 

~O.o.O~

 

_“Ouch!”_

_“Oh no, Asgore, are you okay?!”_

_“Um, yeah, I think so. I just tripped and fell, haha!”_

_“Oh, here. This will make your soul all better!”_

 

~O.o.O~

 

_“So you can basically do whatever you put your mind to, right? Is that the power you possess?”_

_“No, not quite. I can restore hope to myself, and I can endure magical attacks… Sometimes I can even spread that hope to others. But… that is about it, honestly.”_

_“How do you do it?”_

_“I just have to think about what really matters to me. My hopes, my dreams… and then it just… happens.”_

 

~O.o.O~

 

_“Oh, Asgore… who was that girl you were with just now? She is very pretty.”_

_“Reada, please….”_

_“Is she your girlfriend?”_

_“Her name is Toriel, and we are friends. Friends, Reada, just friends!”_

 

~O.o.O~

 

_“Hey Gorey, I think we should go out to dinner tonight. Does the tavern sound good to you?”_

_“Um, sure. But why the tavern? Are you planning on getting drunk?”_

_“Not particularly. Although, I could go for a good drink right about now. Have you heard the news?”_

_“News?”_

_“The humans have declared war on us.”_

_“Now Tori, I understand that you like to joke around, but-”_

_“I am afraid this is not a joke. They just announced it this morning at the annual Monster-Human Affairs conference. They say that we have ten days to surrender to them, or they will kill every last one of us.”_

_“…What? How could this be?”_

_“They say it is because they are afraid of us, but… we have not brought any harm to them, have we? I do not understand their reasoning any more than you do, but I think it would be best to just try and forget about it for the moment. There is nothing we can do for the time being, so we might as well go out and try to enjoy ourselves, right?”_

_“Right.”_

 

~O.o.O~

 

_“The humans have announced that since monsters refuse to surrender peacefully, they will be coming to slaughter us until we do. They have already prepared an army, according to their king. The leader is said to be some kid they pulled from the countryside – Reada, or something like that.”_

 

~O.o.O~

 

_“I cannot do this, Tori… I need to, but I cannot….”_

_“Asgore Dreemurr, look at me right now. Hundreds of monsters have died at the hands of the humans – it is clear that they do not intend to show us any mercy. Are you just going to let all of their sacrifices go to waste?”_

_“No… I do not want that to happen…. I just….”_

_“You just…?”_

_“I just have conflicted feelings, is all.”_

_“Is this about that human friend of yours?”_

_“Maybe… yes…. They were a good friend of mine as a child, and although we have not spoken in years, I just…. It is hard, is all.”_

_“I understand that it must be difficult to fight your friend. However, there are no such things as friends in war. Reada is no longer on your side, they have made that very clear. You just need to let go of the past, Gorey. For the sake of your people’s lives.”_

 

~O.o.O~

 

_“You can do this, Asgore, I know you can. You have trained for this your whole life. You can do this.”_

_“Yes, but I fear that no amount of training can prepare me for **them**.”_

_“It will be alright. It will, okay? Do not let your fear win.”_

_“Okay. I will do my best.”_

_“Gorey, one more thing.”_

_“Yes?”_

_“Please, promise me that you will come back.”_

_“… I will, Tori. I promise.”_

 

~O.o.O~

 

This is it. The battle that will decide the fate of monster kind. 

It’s summer, the sky bright blue and the air just breezy enough to emit a pleasant chill. Birds sing melodically amid the fluffy white clouds, and flowers are blooming all over the world in a brilliant assortment of colors.

Asgore stands ready at the front of the monster army, magical red trident in hand. He tries his best to steal his expression, to be the leader that monsters need him to be. He’s not, of course, but he can at least play the part. He owes it to his people to at least give them that much.

As he waits, he spares a few glances to the rest of the army. They’re pitiful, really. There’s no more than a hundred monsters in line, all of which are dressed in rags and very basic magical armor. Their weapons are hand-crafted mostly, all from magic. Some monsters don’t even have physical weapons at all. 

Nearly a thousand monsters have already fallen at the hands of the humans. Now all that remain are the pathetic remnants of the army and the civilians who managed to stay away from the fighting. Even the King and Queen themselves had taken to the battlefront, and they had died valiantly at the humans’ hands.

Asgore feels a sudden jerk in his chest at the thought of the king and queen – his parents. He and Toriel are the last of his species still alive, and if he dies here….

_No! _He scolds himself, shaking his head furiously. He won’t let himself think that way. He will win this war. He will! He’ll keep his promise to Toriel. He won’t let his people down!  
Asgore’s thoughts are drowned out by the sound of footsteps in the distance. Thump… thump… thump…. The sound of boots on grass fills the atmosphere, and Asgore once again steels his expression. He knows what’s coming, and he knows what he must do.__

When the human army finally comes into view, Asgore sees them – the leader of the human army. Reada. Their auburn hair is flowing graciously in the summer breeze, and rather than their signature spear, they now hold a sword in their grasp. Their expression is far from the gentle, carefree one Asgore remembers from his childhood; now it’s more of a deadpan, emotionless one.

At last, the human army halts, some ten meters from where the monster army stands. For a brief moment, Asgore’s eyes meet with Reada’s, and they send a chill down his spine. They’re still brown, like they used to be, only now they seem so much emptier. They’re so dull now, as if the dust from the monsters they’ve killed has clouded over their eyes.

Then they blink. Once, twice, and then the battle begins.

Monster after monster is slaughtered right before Asgore’s eyes. Dust rains down over the field like a sandstorm, but still he refuses to give up. He has to find Reada. He has to kill Reada. Then he can absorb their soul and become a being with an unfathomable amount of power. That is his plan. It is also his last hope.

“Asgore,” a monotone voice suddenly calls out. Asgore immediately spins around, deflecting the slash of a sword with his trident just in time. Standing there before him is none other than Reada. He takes a moment to swallow down the lump in his throat before narrowing his eyes.

“Reada,” Asgore responds, attempting to push back any miniscule amount of emotion that may surface in his tone. Abruptly, he swings his trident down at the human, but the human nimbly dodges to the side.

“Ha. You are quite skilled with that magic trident of yours. Just like old times.” Another swing of their sword, and another dodge from Asgore.

Asgore tries his best to ignore the pounding in his chest, instead electing to go for another strike.

“This is just like a childish game,” Reada continues as they dodge. “Only this time, the loser will pay a much heftier price than being an ‘ugly tortoise’ for a day.”

“This is not a game, Reada,” Asgore says as he strikes again. “This is war. Monsters are dying at your hands.”

“Yes, I suppose that is true. They lost the game.” Reada smiles, just then – a crescent moon of a smile, as if it isn’t even genuine at all. “And now you are going to lose as well.”

When Reada’s sword next slashes down, Asgore is overtaken by shock. It all happens in a blur, the blade slicing through his stomach, the dust pouring out of him all at once. He begins to feel hot, just then – hot, and dizzy, as if he is losing his grip on this plane of existence altogether.

With his last bit of consciousness, Asgore looks up from where he is kneeling to meet Reada’s gaze. They hold their sword up above their shoulders, as if they are going to strike the final blow at any second. Their smile doesn’t falter, although something about their expression makes Asgore flood with sadness.

“Please, Reada,” he pleads, feeling tears come to his eyes. “Please think about what you are doing. Monsters are not the enemy here – we have not wronged you! Remember when we used to play together in this very field? Remember when we first met? What has become of that now? Was it all for naught?” 

Reada is silent. Asgore takes that as a sign to continue.

“Please, show some mercy, Reada. Think about all the monsters you have murdered – men, women, children, and everything in between. Did they deserve the wrath you are springing upon them? Did they deserve to die for the sake of your cowardice?” A wave of pain surges through him, threatening to split him into a million pieces, but still Asgore persists. “We can talk this all out over a cup of tea, I am certain of it! That is what the Reada I used to know would do….”

There is a brief moment of silence. Asgore feels a small, dull feeling of hope flutter in his chest as he thinks about Toriel, about his people, about his future. But then all of that hope is extinguished when Reada slashes his sword down one final time.

“The Reada you used to know is dead,” they say, just as emotionlessly as before.

Asgore flinches, feeling dread wash over his entire body. He braces himself for the pain, and yet… the pain never comes. In fact, all of the pain is gone now, somehow. At least he thinks it is? Or perhaps he really is dead. Perhaps he is in the afterlife now, where pain ceases to exist.

Somewhat reluctantly, he blinks open his eyes – once, twice. Then he lets out a sigh. Reada is still standing before him; he isn’t dead just yet.

“However,” Reada continues, “I will grant you and your people mercy as long as you agree to surrender to me and the human army. That is my only offer.”

Asgore lets out a breath he didn’t know he’d been holding, taking note that Reada’s sword rests limply in front of him. He could essentially strike Reada down now, if he wants to, but… he can’t. He just can’t do it. He’s too weak to do such a thing, even for the sake of his people.

Releasing a heavy sigh, Asgore replies, “I surrender.”

 

~O.o.O~

 

Seven magicians stand together at the entrance to the underground, and seven colors of magic all release at once from the magicians’ fingertips. The magician at the front is different from the others, however. They are dressed in warrior clothing, and their soul glistens bright crimson red in front of their chest.

As the different colors of magic begin to merge together, Asgore takes Toriel’s hand in his own, but doesn’t look away from the gaze of the red magician. Their eyes are still dull, still a dusty sort of brown, and their expression is still stoned as always. Only, Asgore can almost see something beyond that all – something like an echo of sadness below the surface, as if Reada is not happy with the situation either.

Reada opens their mouth, as if to say something just as the bright magical colors begin to fade into a pure, shimmering white light. It could have been anything, really, but in the end it doesn’t matter anyway. Reada had their chance, and they didn’t take it. They betrayed their best friend.

Now the barrier shines brightly over the exit to the underground, forever separating the world of monsters and humans, and Asgore is left to rule over a kingdom that has lost so much hope that he’s afraid they may never find it again.

 

~O.o.O~

 

When Asgore next blinks open his eyes, he’s back in the throne room of his castle. The children are still in the corner playing, Asriel pretending to shoot Chara with some imaginary beam of stars and Chara dodging his every attack, only to retaliate with their own.

With his gaze still on Chara, Asgore smiles to himself. Chara is the reason monsters have once again found hope, in a time when hope seemed like it could never be found again. And, although they may be similar to Reada in many ways, they are not the same. While Reada was the destroyer of humans and monsters, Chara is the hope of humans and monsters, and Asgore is certain that that fact will never change.

**Author's Note:**

> If anything about this is formatted strangely, please let me know! This is my first time using this website, so I really have no clue what I'm doing lol. Anyway, hope you enjoyed!


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